John Coleman knows this side are by no means the finished article but he is determined to polish them up sooner rather than later.

The Reds boss was gutted after their Carling Cup first round exit to League One Scunthorpe on Tuesday night after late goals by ex-Rochdale striker Chris Dagnall and Andy Barcham ended any hopes of a bumper tie like last year’s Newcastle clash.

Coleman’s team, with several new additions, are still gelling but the defeat hurt the Reds’ boss and he admitted it’s back to the training ground.

The Reds dominated the first half with Kurtis Guthrie having three one-on-one chances in the first few minutes.

But then it was attack against defence in the second half as Alan Knill’s team upped the pace and finally broke through with a debatable penalty and a wonder strike.

A downcast Coleman admitted: "I am disappointed that we lost. If anyone was going to score it was going to be them in the second half.

"We had three one-on-ones in the opening minutes and if you don’t take your chances you don’t win.

"The top and bottom of it is that we have to galvanise ourselves better than we did in the second half.

"In the second half we were poor, we didn’t press the ball, we didn’t pass the ball and we didn’t hold it up. The ball has kept coming back at us and they played the same diagonal ball and it caused us no end of problems.

"You can’t concede possession and chances like we did or else we will be in trouble.

"You can make comments aboutthe referee’s decisions but I don’t want to get too involved with the referees this season.

"At the end of the day we have got to play through that.

"We have got good players here and I have told them that but I think some of them don’t believe it.

"To play like we did in the first half but then like that in the second half defies belief."

The Reds fans just want to see teenager Guthrie take a chance to inspire belief in him after his switch from amateur football.

He caused the Iron defence a host of problems in the first few minutes. Keeper Josh Lillis caught his chip in the opening seconds when he was clean through and he then rounded the keeper at an angle but no one was there to pounce on his low cross.

He was all over them and there is the sense that one goal will inspire him to truly believe that he can hit the heights in League Two.

Craig Lindfield similarly needs to gain confidence knocked over several seasons as he has been in and out of sides and he had an eight-yard effort blocked by Lillis.

Ian Craney and Charlie Barnett both tried their luck but they couldn’t make any chances count either.

However, one of the talking points of the first half came away from the goalmouth when Dean Winnard’s challenge on his former team-mate Jimmy Ryan on 14 minutes left the midfielder needing treatment and hobbling off with a dead leg a few minutes later.

Winnard apologised after the game to Ryan, who is expected to recover for Scunthorpe’s clash against Preston.

Then it was Ryan’s replacement Andy Barcham who began to carve out a few opportunities, his best a free header which he could only send over the bar with Reds’ keeper Sean Murdoch stranded.

It was goalless at half-time, and even then, it seemed extra-time was looming as there was little to separate the sides.

However Knill said at half-time it was his job to instill belief into his side, relegated from the Championship last season, and get them on the front foot while Coleman admitted he didn’t know why his side changed their way of playing after the break.

It was all Scunthorpe with Kevin McIntyre hitting the top of his own crossbar clearing a cross while ex-Morecambe man Mark Duffy shot wide as he looked for a breakthrough.

Iron striker Garry Thompson’s effort was superbly turned around the post by Murdoch, while Paul Reid’s close-range effort was well collected by the Reds keeper even though Scunthorpe claimed it had crossed the line.

Stanley, who came up against another ex-Red Bobby Grant on 68 minutes, were struggling to get out of their own half after the break and had to cope with a large number of free kicks, corners and throws into their penalty area.

The game did seem destined for extra-time though until eight minutes from time Kern Miller challenged Barcham in the area and was judged to have pushed him, harshly so felt the defender.

The ref pointed to the spot to the delight of the 200 travelling fans and Dagnall sent Murdoch the wrong way in front of the home supporters.

It was effectively game over then and when Barcham curled home a 25-yarder in injury-time, it was purely a statistic.

"We made more chances than them and they have six times our budget and, on the balance of play we should have won," said Coleman.

"I am very disappointed. We were good at home last season but we didn’t get the ball down and pass it like we can and lumped it forward and got what we deserved."